hey, did you notice my secret crush?
by Within Rhythms
Summary: in no way he's ever gonna see her in the way she sees him.  one-shot


Supposedly, this is a birthday!fic for a friend of mine. But, her birthday has long passed. Oh, well. Better late than never, right?

**Disclaimer!** Don't own, never will, such is my life.

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><p><strong>hey, do you notice my secret crush?<strong>

/

She sometimes feels like feeling like this is a waste of time. He's never going to look at her the way she does; admiration and _like_? She's pretty sure she likes him (and having someone that is an obvious fangirl for the guy as your best friend isn't helping), but she's too shy to say anything about it. One could say she's suffering in silence.

/

She doesn't like sports.

But she joined the girls' tennis club anyway.

Everyone thinks she joined the tennis club because her grandmother made her do it. That's partly the reason. Mostly it's because of him. He's pretty much the pushing force that finally made her gave in to her grandmother's pleas.

Going through the strenuous training in the evening (and during summer vacations due to her grandmother's insistence) sometimes made her rethink her decisions, but the chance to be able to see him in his element is well worth it (something that she will never admit openly to Tomo-chan).

/

She's not that good in English; passable, but she's no where one of the class' top scorers.

When he transferred into her class, she feels the need to catch up to him. So on the way back from school, she stocked up on exercise books and asked her grandmother to enrol her in cram school. Her grandmother looked at her in confusion since when she first pitched the idea before, Sakuno almost threw a fit (well, a fit for her) and insisted that she can study better at her own pace.

A few weeks (of late-nights studying) later, when her test results came back, a tiny part of her jumped in joy for the "A" that she received; a mark that is a huge jump from her previous results. Her teacher praised her for such achievement and told the whole class to follow in her example.

She was flushed with joy and embarrassment. Partly because no one knows what gave her the drive to do better in class. They just thought it's typically her to do that.

She then thinks maybe now she can hold proper English conversation with him and maybe it will get him to finally look at her properly and see her as more than the coach's granddaughter.

/

As far as she can tell, she's a pretty decent cook.

Living with her grandmother; just the two of them, is like going to finishing school for the refined ladies of high societies. Her grandmother may not look like it, but she's strict in the traditional ways of a Japanese girl.

(Which probably explains her overly timidity as opposed to the brash and loud Tomoka.)

A day before Valentine's Day, she stayed up late into the night to finish the chocolates she going to give him the next day. She needed to make sure the chocolates were _perfect_ for him. She knew his doesn't really like sweet chocolates, so she leafed through a couple of cookbooks for a recipe that's probably suited to his taste.

The next day, with her finished product in a blue wrapper with kitties' imprints on it, she braved herself to go to his table. No more than a few steps from her table, she stopped because a mob of fangirls got to him first and were presenting their chocolates; even Natsuko, the self-proclaimed chef of the class.

Everyone knows her cooking; they're delicious and inventive.

She always thinks that Natsuko would make a good chef, like the one in fancy restaurants. It was then that she thought that her cooking would never be as good as hers. So she went back to her seat and left the chocolates under her table.

("Aren't you going to give it to him, Sakuno-chan?" an irate Tomoka asks. She gets no reply in return so she huffs.)

She found the chocolates missing the next day (because she forgot to bring it back).

/

Like most girls, Sakuno enjoys dressing up.

So when the opportunity came for her to show-off in front of Ryoma, she held on to it for her dear life (even if it's only a trip to the shop for restringing).

She liked to think of it as a date, even if it was only from the orders of her grandmother that she was able to get this golden opportunity.

She's secretly glad that Tomo-chan couldn't make it because it means even with his lack of emotion for anything other than tennis and Karupin, he won't be distracted by her friend's straightforward attitude and probably will pay attention to her then.

She spent hours choosing her outfit that she was late to meet him and slightly scared that he might be angry at her.

He wasn't because he himself was late, which made her sad. He didn't care about her enough to show up on time.

During their trip to the racquet-stringer, she tried talking to him. She tried being more straight-forward than usual. She thought their little outing was going great. He's not that talkative anyway, so she kept talking.

"Why are you being so talkative today?" he suddenly asked her.

Shocked was an understatement of how she felt then. She did what any girl in her position would; she ran and cried.

But he made it up to her by the end of the day. She thought it was kind of sweet of him (even if it was just a can of Ponta and an impromptu tennis lesson).

Maybe, just maybe, he might be seeing her for her that day, she thought. She liked to think that way.

/

It's March 14th.

She didn't think of it as anything special.

(A couple of her friends give her an array of candies and some of the tennis regulars give her cookies.)

After all, her _honmei-choco_ didn't get to the person intended and probably got eaten by one of the kids at school when she accidentally left it at school a month ago.

Of course it came as a shock to her when someone grabbed her hand at the school gate and more or less yanks her to follow whoever it is that 'kidnapped' her.

When she looks up, her heart almost stopped. She'd recognise that hat anywhere. He is still in his tennis attire and she thinks she can see him blushing. She can't help but smile a little.

At the end of the date (she likes using that word now), he confesses that Tomoka gave him _her_ chocolates; the chocolates that she left at school, the chocolates that she thought was eaten by some random person.

Mumbling a little, he says sorry for making her feel bad that time and while blushing furiously (even under his long bangs and cap pulled down, she can see it) he gives her a grape Ponta.

It's the best thing she gets that day.

(She makes a mental note to thank Tomoka later.)

**owari**

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><p>Uwaaah~ I haven't watched PoT in a long time, so maybe that fact about Ryoma not liking sweet things is maybe a little bit off.<p>

[Nee, Shacchan, do you like it? Otanjoubi Omedettou~ even if it's late. :p]

**Thanks for reading. :D**


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